Heigardian Civil War
The Heigardian Civil War was the conflict which led to the secession of the Departments of the Heigardian Islands from the Republic of France to establish an independent Republic of Heigard. Liberals and much of the population regarded Louis XVI’s reign as despotic and the French Republic extremist, and were turning heads to a possible union with Charles IV. There were high levels of unemployment and industrial unrest among the working classes, despite the fact Heigard was one of the wealthiest regions in France. On January 22, 1793, due to the beheading of Louis XVI a day before, riots erupted in the streets of Crèbourg, followed by uprisings elsewhere in the country. Factories were occupied and machinery destroyed. Three intense battles were fought in total, one in Charleroi, one in Pounneure and the last one in Crèbourg, Republicans obtaining victory in the latter two. In the aftermath, the Regional Parlement, headed by revolutionaries, voted for secession and declared Independence on November 19, 1795. Anti-French coalitions recognized Heigard as an independent state in 1796; France didn’t recognize Heigard until the Congress of Vienna in 1815. __TOC__ Background Heigard had been an isolated region of the French Kingdom for centuries, virtually governating itself, and remaining with strong Catholic faith. Heigardian economy stood by itself by the shipyards in the Northern Coast and the island of Philliers, which built many of the finest boats of the French Navy; for possessing one of the largest fishing industries in Europe and for being an important point of trade between Europe itself and the New World. Class differences were not as great in Heigard as in Paris or in other French provinces. In rural Vendée, the local nobility seems to have been more residential and less bitterly resented than in other parts of France. The execution of Louis XVI marked the beginning of the revolution, joining together several members of the Three Estates in which society was divided, people who rejected the cult of kingship and absolutism.. Religion was one of the triggers of the revolution, as the 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy required all clerics to swear allegiance to it and to the anti-clerical National Constituent Assembly, which saw Catholicism as a retrograde force. More than half of the Heigardian bishops and parish priests rejected the oath, thus prosecution of the clergy and the faithfull began in Heigardian cities and towns: Nonjuring priests were exiled or imprisoned. Women on their way to Mass were beaten in the streets. Religious orders were suppressed and Church property confiscated. On March 3, 1793, virtually all the churches were ordered closed. Sacramental vessels were confiscated by soldiers and the people were forbidden to place a cross on their graves. Uprisings worsened when the French Republicans introduced a mass levy of 300,000 in the whole France, and when the conscription decree arrived in March of 1793 the population strongly opposed the local government rioting and stopping economic activities. Outbreak of revolt There were other levy riots across France, when regions started to draft men into the army to supply forces in the several battles against the anti-French coallition. The reaction in the north west in early March was particularly pronounced with large scale rioting verging on insurrection. By early April, in areas south of the Benoir, order had been restored by the nationalist government, but north of the Benoir in four departments that became known as the Héigarde Militaire there were few troops to control rebels and what had started as rioting quickly took on the form of a full insurrection led by priests and the local nobility. As economy diminished with the pressures of the nationalists agains the rebels (almost the complete Third Estate), infrastructure crumbled and dozens of commerces bankrupted bringing the region to a period of inestability and high rates of unemployment. Prices of basic needs raised significantly and taxation collected by the Gouvernement continued and increased as result of the government debt. In late June, when uprisings had diminished activities, the National Convention in France ordered the Heigardian self-established government to execute every enemy of the "Republic". The already-deposed Duke Charles VI, active leader of the Republicans, was judged for high treason and slaughtered with the "National Razor" (guillotine), re-ignitining the rebelious movements. The representatives of the French Republic —judges, mayors, educators, National Guardsmen and others- were captured by republicans in Crébourg. They were taken to the Place de France and shot dead in a public event called Le nettoyage (La limpieza; The Cleansing). Nationalist response Battle of Crèbourg Battle of Charleroi Battle of Pounneure Category:Heigard Category:Events